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Expedition to Maybee Mines

Hello All,
I'm new here, i've been reading this thread and have decided to make a 3 day camping trip in the area of maybee Mine, and try and locate it and other mines in the area of shirt creek / bluebird creek. some quick questions to those that have been there before (without revealing to much info) is it better to come at the mine sight from the north or the east? i've located an old road that should get me within about 1.5 - 2 miles east of the mine (if my maps are accurate...) I've lived in washougal for almost 10 years and never knew the history of the place before, so i am dying to go see some of these old sites, also is the upper cotterll dam powerhouse still standing? if so is it on private property? has anyone been up to it or Maybee mine recently (this year?). and most important, is there anyone who would be interested in going with me to try and find maybee mine? the planned trip dates are Aug. 22 - 24...
i've for a big 4x4 and at east 1 other friend with a 4x4, so we are hoping to drive to within a few miles and hoof it in, we'd like to visit as many historical sites in the area as possible within those 3 days. but like i said i'm a noob, and i know nothing about the area. only thing i've heard is that a few years ago there was a guy (with a shotgun) who was trying to re open a mine (last chance mine?) and some one almost got shot when they stumbled upon him... and reading about commercial mining?

I would be interested in checking out the Maybee mines with you, I have some experience with the area; been to Skamania, Last Chance, and Yellow Jacket Mines. I also have a bunch of experience with locating mine sites. I would be interested in attempting to dig out one or both of the adits, I would guess that the workings further from the portal wont be collapsed. I'm really not sure how successful we'll be digging out the adits but it's worth a shot I think. If we can get in there, we'd be first in over 50 years.

Hello All,
I'm new here, i've been reading this thread and have decided to make a 3 day camping trip in the area of maybee Mine, and try and locate it and other mines in the area of shirt creek / bluebird creek. some quick questions to those that have been there before (without revealing to much info) is it better to come at the mine sight from the north or the east? i've located an old road that should get me within about 1.5 - 2 miles east of the mine (if my maps are accurate...) I've lived in washougal for almost 10 years and never knew the history of the place before, so i am dying to go see some of these old sites, also is the upper cotterll dam powerhouse still standing? if so is it on private property? has anyone been up to it or Maybee mine recently (this year?). and most important, is there anyone who would be interested in going with me to try and find maybee mine? the planned trip dates are Aug. 22 - 24...
i've for a big 4x4 and at east 1 other friend with a 4x4, so we are hoping to drive to within a few miles and hoof it in, we'd like to visit as many historical sites in the area as possible within those 3 days. but like i said i'm a noob, and i know nothing about the area. only thing i've heard is that a few years ago there was a guy (with a shotgun) who was trying to re open a mine (last chance mine?) and some one almost got shot when they stumbled upon him... and reading about commercial mining?

Hi Andrew. Glad you found this forum!

Living in Washougal gives you a distinct advantage, location wise.

As to your question, about which way to go in. I think you will find that some of the roads that your map shows are either overgrown and impassable, or gated off. The best road is behind a private green gate by the water fall. If you know someone who has property there, you might be able to get them to allow you to cross it. Otherwise coming in from Prospector creek is a brutal hike....probably at least 3 miles. Coming down from the Bluff Mtn trail is downhill but the trees and brush are extremely thick. A couple of guys mention following the valley down from Bluff Mtn and seem to do OK. But that looks brutal to me. And going back up would be very taxing.

I would consider going down from the top again, knowing that it will take 3 -4 hours to get to the mine. But I would also probably walk out the bottom to Prospector Creek, which would take 4 -5 hours.

Nature is really reclaiming that section, and it is becoming very difficult to get to the mines. But that is also what makes it an adventure!

That said, I will look at my calendar with my boys and see if we have any conflicts on those dates, as I would like to make the trip again. And a 2 - 3 day trip would give more time to explore the area.

I'm hooked

I've been reading through this thread like a kid with a sweet tooth walking through the rich neighborhood on halloween.

I don't have much experience in this area exploring, but I love the woods and love the idea of exploring and peeking into history.

If any of you are going out exploring soon please PLEASE let me know and hopefully you will let me tag along.
I was in a SAR explorer group when I was a kid and I've bee hooked on the woods ever since. I try not to take 2 day trips since I have a baby and a wife, but wouldn't be opposed to it.

Otherwise keep the stories and new adventures coming. I might just have to go check some of this stuff out by myself.

Okay, we are planning to go on Saturday, September 20th. Jeremy and a friend went on a scouting trip to the lower route out and determined that it is too overgrown. So, if you are up for some serious inclined bushwhacking, let's do this.

In June of 2016 I finally made it to the Mabee Mines. I was going to post about the trip but I couldn’t log into my account. Efforts to recover my password never seemed to work and I finally gave up. Just recently I tried again and low and behold, it actually worked! So here is my belated report.

From the Bluff Mountain trailhead we followed NF-502 to an unnamed ridge on the east side of the road. We then left the road and followed the ridge which is northeast of Bluebird Creek. Actually there’s another drainage basin east of Bluebird, so the ridge was the one northeast of that. The first half mile or so isn’t too bad. It’s interspersed with areas of think brush that you often have to put your head down and push through. These areas become more frequent (and more of a pain). Eventually we broke out of the thick overgrowth and started the steep descent through more open forest. We followed a no name drainage until it intersected with Bluebird creek and soon found the remains of the old road. According to my GPS coordinates, we just had to head upstream a couple hundred yards and we’d be there. The coordinates were correct and we were soon kicking around the old mine site. There’s still a lot of machinery out there, it was fun exploring the bits and pieces scattered around. I know some people here have discussed digging out the adit, but it seems like it would be a herculean task. The upper adit on the northeast side of the creek seems to be a better candidate if that was your goal. Unfortunately we were pressed for time so after about 40 minutes we had to head out. As you can tell from the topo, it’s a pretty steep climb out. We followed an old pipe past the upper adit and then into the open forest, my cousin and hiking companion cursed my name as it seemed to get steeper and steeper. And then the thunderstorm hit. At that point he vowed he’d never again go on another adventure with me J Soon I started getting racked by full body shivers. We were both soaked to the bone so I was worried it might be the early symptoms of hypothermia. We eventually got back to my cousins Jeep and headed back home with the heat blasting and me shivering uncontrollably. Long story short, it turned out it wasn’t hypothermia, but the flu.